Between now and June 28, the deadline for Emmy voters to return nomination ballots, EW.com is running a series called Emmy Watch, featuring highlight clips and interviews with actors, producers, and writers whom EW TV critic Ken Tucker has on his wish list for the nominations announcement on July 19.

He was calm. He was cool. He was always collecting information on his surroundings. Gustavo “Gus” Fring – the pleasant fast-food restaurant owner and upstanding community member who moonlighted as a merciless drug kingpin on AMC’s Breaking Bad – proved to be one of TV’s most intriguing and fearsome villains in recent years. And the actor who played Gus, Giancarlo Esposito, treated viewers to a reign of tranquil terror that [SPOILER ALERT] lasted from the end of season 2 to the conclusion of season 4, when rising meth lord Walter White (Bryan Cranston) felled him with an explosion. But in season 4’s eighth episode, “Hermanos,” we were shown a new (make that old) side of Gus: a somewhat innocent soul who watched in horror as his dear partner, Max (James Martinez), was gunned down in front of – and on – him, the splattered blood staining him forever.

Revisit that long, tense scene below and then read our interview with Esposito, in which he discusses the challenges of pulling off that scene, his unlikely inspiration for Gus, and his next role.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What do you remember about shooting “Hermanos”?GIANCARLO ESPOSITO: I was about to be with Spanish speakers who were all fluent in Spanish. I didn’t want to be the weak link in the scene in terms of the language, so I really buckled down to learn the language…. It’s not typical Spanish. It’s Chilean Spanish. And we had a Puerto Rican speaker. We had a Spanish speaker from Spain. All of them had different ways of saying the same thing. But thank goodness I take what I do seriously and really love it. I wanted not to offend any Chilean Spanish speakers. [Laughs]

What I didn’t count on was being so committed to Gus’s emotional state. I’d been playing Gus for a little while and had committed myself to dropping my energy to a point where I could be a real listener and observer of people. This episode takes us back 20 years, and we’re around the pool where Gus is with his nemesis Don Eladio (Steven Bauer), who he absolutely hates because the guy is a disgusting slob and doesn’t really know how to grow a business. Gus has great dreams and a great imagination in terms of how to start his chicken business and have it be a front for the meth business. And as he explained it to Don Eladio with his protégé Max, the air gets thicker and more dangerous by the second, and quickly Gus realizes he’s in a very precarious situation. But he’s a different Gus from the Gus we had known for a season and a half. He’s the Gus of 20 years ago, who has many of the traits that the Gus we know does, but is a little more naïve and a little more trusting, even of his enemies.

You sense more of an attachment to his feelings. He’s so hardened over by the time we meet him.
There’s certainly a vulnerability. The day I shot it, I was feeling very vulnerable, being out of that place of power that Gus so emits – a very quiet, graceful, powerful energy. I had to be more energetic as that younger Gus, but also someone who is much more innocent and hadn’t experienced life that our older Gus has. I was thrown off by that and thrown off by the fact that I had to be in a more vulnerable and weaker position, compared to Don Eladio and the other actors in the scene. And it was wonderful to have that feeling as an actor. It wasn’t so great for me as Gus, but I realize I was in the right place when I walked away and I almost broke into tears. And that was the right feeling for Gus to have in that moment.

Some viewers thought that Gus was actually mourning the loss of his life partner, not just his business partner. One clue was Hector’s “They like what they see!” taunt while peeing in the pool. Did you specifically play to that ambiguity or was it written that way?
It was written as is, but I wanted it to be ambiguous. I wanted people to think what they thought. So that I didn’t have to make a decision for the audience. I certainly feel that Max was a straight-up protégé, someone that he loves for human reasons and it doesn’t go beyond that. But when people started to talk about the fact that they could be life partners, I thought that was very interesting because it’s the same kind of love, the same kind of caring. But I wanted it not to be black or white. I didn’t want to make a decision in my head either way….

It was a really incredible relationship. He takes young Max off the street of El Salvador. Max’s dream is to become a chemist, and he gives him that gift. Of course, he wants something in return, but that really is the core to who Gus is: bringing people to their best selves even if the business he is in is not quite above board. To see someone Gus had invested so much in and someone Gus believed in and someone who was so intelligent, who could not only make this chicken recipe, but also could make the best meth and someone as committed as he was – the hardest part was to see his dream die. And that created the space for the vengeance that carries Gus from what we see through his storyline. That is a very important part of the puzzle of who Gus is.

How did you interpret that line from Gus in the nursing home: “Is today the day, Hector?”
I was wanting information. I wanted Hector (Mark Margolis) to apologize to me. I wanted Hector to look me in my eye and tell me what I wanted him to say. It’s very, very literal. “Is today the day that you’re going to speak to me? You’re going to look at me and you’re going to fess up.” This relationship with Hector from way back in our past is a deep, deep, vengeful, horrible thing – and Hector knows it. He won’t look Gus in the eye. That’s a sign of disrespect, especially in Spanish-speaking countries.